Little Boys Lost
by englandoclova
Summary: A little RyanSeth story, but this time, with little Trey too! Would things be different if Trey and Ryan where brought up as Cohens? Would Trey still turn out BAD?
1. Chapter 1

Sandy tapped his fingers on the dashboard of his posh BMW. He looked around the scruffy neighbourhood. Fresno was a far cry from Newport. The families here scraping by were a far cry from his beautiful wife and seven year old son, who were probably being served dinner by Rosa by now, in their magnificent mansion.

Sandy shook his head. It just wasn't fair, life wasn't fair. He had just dropped off a young boy of thirteen, who he would be defending for shop lifting. Shoplifting, at thirteen, maybe it wasn't such a far cry from Newport. But in Newport, the thirteen-year-olds caught shoplifting had mummy and daddy as a get-out-of-jail free card.

As Sandy pulled out of the driveway of his charges house, he noticed a commotion around the house next door. He got out of his car for a closer look. He was shocked at what he saw.

Two little boys, one looked to be about Seth's age, the other perhaps four or five, were trying desperatly to scramble away as a woman, clearly drunk, threw a glass vodka bottle after them. The older of the children pushed his terrified brother behind him and put up his arms in an attempt at self defence.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with the OC!

The two boys sat in the back of Sandy's car, clearly terrified, but they had no other option than to go with this stranger. Neither wholly trusted their situation, such was the manner of their upbringing that they always expected a slap. However, something about Sandy was different from any men they had ever met before. He wasn't huge and threatening, well he was huge, compared to the two little squirts sitting in his back seat, but he wasn't threatening. He didn't tower above you or scare you, he had bent down to explain to the boys that they were coming with him because mummy needed a break, as if he truly believed they were equals.

It was this element of the unknown that scared the boys.

Sandy, having finished his talk with Dawn and his phone call to child services, jumped in the car and started the engine. He looked in the wing mirror at the boys. The oldest was strapped in, tightly clutching his brothers hand, who was strapped into the 'baby' seat which Seth had refused to use several years ago, but Sandy had never got around to taking out of his car. It was just as well, it seemed, as this tiny boy was now making use of it.

"So, kids, tell me a little about yourselves, my names Mr. Cohen, by the way, but call me Sandy,"

The children looked terrified at the prospect of speech, but, after some hesitation, the eldest spoke up:

"My name is Trey Atwood, I am nearly eleven years old, and my brother is called Ryan, he is seven."

Sandy nodded. Truth be told though, he was shocked, how could these boys look so young for their age? Deep inside, Sandy knew the answer, he just didn't like to think about it.

"We'll Trey, Ryan, you boys are gonna have a good time playing at my house, I have a son the same age as you Ryan, maybe you guys could be friends?"

Ryan shrunk back into his seat at the prospect of being addressed, leaving Trey to answer for him:

"Ryan would like that, where do you live, Sandy?"

"Newport Beach, its quite a long drive kids, I don't often come down your way, but I was filling in for the state attorney for your region. Looks like fate brought us together."

Sandy didn't know why he was telling this to these boys who probably didn't understand some of the words, but he felt a connection between them.

"Gee, Sandy, how long will it take there, it's just my brother gets sick in the car, and he might need the toilet." Trey asked, polite for his age, Sandy noticed.

"Okay, don't worry guys, we'll stop off if you need to, just give me a shout when you need to go Ryan."

"Mr. Sandy, Ryan won't shout at you sir, he doesn't talk you see."

Sandy's brows furrowed.

"What do you mean, son?"

"Our dad used to say he was dumb, sir, but he's not, he's really smart sir, he just can't talk."

Sandy nodded slowly. Suddenly the explaining to Kirsten thing seemed a whole lot harder.

"Well, that's fine, how does Ryan let you know when he needs to go, Trey?"

"Uhh… Mr. Cohen, sir, I think we need to pull up now, Ryan's had an accident."

Sandy looked in his rear view mirror at the petrified looking Ryan, who now had a rather wet pair of pants.

"Oh, hey kiddo, don't worry, OK,"

Sandy pulled in at the next service stop. He climbed out of the car and opened Ryan's side door, reaching in to lift the boy out, as he would have done Seth, unlike Seth however, Ryan shrunk back away from Sandy, scared senseless.

Trey too had suddenly put his guard back up, and, struggling out of his seat, jumped in front of Ryan, his arms out in the same way he had done when his mother was throwing a bottle at them.

"Hey, hey, its ok, I'm not gonna hurt you, ok? Lets just get Ryan sorted out and then I'll get you something to eat, if you like."

Trey was obviously still scared, but backed down. Allowing Sandy to unstrap Ryan and lift him gently from the car. Ryan was rigid with fear, and, although he didn't squirm to get away, this was far from Seth's behaviour, who would cling happily to his fathers neck when he got lifted up.

Sandy carried Ryan to the restroom at the services, instructing Trey to keep a hold of his trouser leg.

After he had Ryan cleaned up and in a pair of Seth's pants, which were kept in the car for such emergencies (although they were much to big for Ryan), Sandy brought the boy's some fries from MacDonald's, which, he noticed, they weren't very happy to accept.

Before long, they were on the road again, and heading in to Newport. Sandy was going to have an awful lot of explaining to do when he got home…

TBC

Just to clear it up- BY BABY SEAT I MEAN THOSE ONES FOR LITTLE KIDS NOT ACTUAL BABIES. THOSE SEATS FOR KIDS ABOUT 3-6 years.

What do you think?Please reply!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

Disclaimer- I own nothing- Damn it!

Sandy pulled into the drive of his beautiful house, his wife's beautiful house. Ryan had gone to sleep in the back, but Trey was keeping the guard up for the both of them. Everytime Trey was about to drop off he would shake the sleep away.

Sandy got out of the car and opened the door for Trey to get out. He unbuckled a sleeping Ryan and lifted him out, much to Trey's obvious horror.

"Its OK kid, come on into my house and meet my family."

As Trey turned around to get his first glimpse of the house his jaw dropped.

"Sandy, you live in a palace?"

Sandy just chuckled and led the way inside.

As he opened the door he was meet by the shrill sound of an annoyed Kirsten: he was late home, he had promised to be early tonight.

"Sandy Cohen! You promised, you promised you'd be in time for our movie night…"

At the sound of raised voices, Trey darted behind Sandy, terrified, Ryan started awake, struggling against Sandy's hold and Kirsten abruptly stopped mid-sentence when she caught sight of the motley crew in her entrance hall.

"Shh, shh," Sandy tried desperately to comfort a petrified Ryan who was panicking at being touched.

"Sandy..." Kirsten growled

"I need to have a word with you, honey," Sandy began.

"Daddy!" Suddenly, the struggling in Sandy's arms stopped as Ryan froze and looked down at a mop of hair that had attached itself around Sandy's waist.

All of a sudden, Ryan quite calmly climbed out of Sandy's arms to take a better look at this little boy. He was very tall, Ryan noticed nearly as tall as his big brother Trey. Seth seemed to have a calming influence on Ryan, and his presence, and clear lack of fright around these two grown ups seemed to be enough to make him relax slightly in the presence of these strangers.

"Seth, why don't you go and show Trey and Ryan your toys whilst me and Mummy talk."

"Cool, come on Ryan, Trey. Hey, you guys wanna be my friend? If you're my friend you can be friends with my friend Captain Oats too. So, how old are you guys? Where do you live? What's your favourite game? Do you like video games?"

Ryan smiled up at Seth, he talked a lot, he thought.

"Yeah, lets be friends, I'm 10, my brother Ryan is 7, we live in Fresno, lived in Fresno, I think." Trey tried to answer as many of Seth's many questions as he could in one statement.

"Cool, Ryan, were the same age, we can be best friends!"

The Atwood brothers followed Seth up the stairs to his bedroom, which they were taken aback by- it was posh, huge and had more toys than either had seen in their lives.

"What you wanna play?" Seth asked.

Trey shrugged, then picked up an Action Man, which he started to bounce along the side of the desk. It was soon joined by a dinosaur, which started to bite the doll.

Ryan just stood in the middle of the room, looking small and vulnerable.

"What about you, Ryan?"

Ryan looked nervously at his brother Trey, who wasn't paying attention. He didn't know what to do, so he sat down on the floor and put his arms over his head, like he used to when his dad would shout at him when Trey wasn't around, and he just wanted not to be noticed.

"Ryan, you ok? Want me to get my mummy, she's good at making you feel happy."

Ryan just blanked Seth out. His confidence had disappeared as easily as it had come, and now he was alone and terrified again, like he had been all those times when Trey wasn't around to stick up for him.

"_Don't make any noise, don't make any noise, don't make them angry, don't make them angry" _Was all Ryan could think. His dad had hated noises. Really, really hated them.

"Ryan, Trey, I think your brothers upset, Trey! I'm gonna get mummy, she'll know what to do!" Seth wasn't used to things like this in the Newport bubble.

Trey was on the floor with his arms around his brother as quick as a flash, as was a rather disgruntled Kirsten, who had heard Seth's racket. She had unwillingly agreed for the boys to stay for a week or so while their mum got sorted out, seeing as how she didn't really have a choice in the matter- they were already here after all.

"Ryan, sweetie, it's OK, don't cry, what's the matter?"

"Ryan's not fing scared, were not scared of you," Trey yelled, _don't let them know your scared, don't let them know your scared, that's what they want, don't let them know._ Was all that Trey could think.

Kirsten was completely taken aback, she could not believe what she was hearing from the mouth of a child, a child, not much older than Seth.

"SANDY!" she yelled, causing Ryan to jump and scramble beneath Seth's bed.

To make matters worse, Seth choose that moment to ask the dreaded question:

"Mummy, what does that word Trey said mean?"

This was going to be one tough week or two…

TBC- please let me know what you think.

I asterixed a certain word for the more sensitive among you. He He.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer- I own nothing to do with the OC. Apart from a copy of the Season 1 box-set, he he!

Sandy jogged up to Seth's room when he heard Kirsten yell.

The sight that met him was Kirsten, fuming, kneeled down on the floor next to Seth's bed, looking underneath it, Trey next to her, but further underneath, and Seth standing tapping his mothers back, repeating again and again the same question:

"Mum, what does that word mean? Mum, what does that word mean? Mum, what does that word mean? Mum, what does that word mean? Mum, what does that word mean…"

Sandy smiled to himself, it may be hectic, but this was the kind of family life he had always dreamed of- three kids, close in age, and him and Kirsten really mucking in. Don't get the guy wrong he loved Seth and Kirsten more than anything, but there had always seemed like there was something missing. Looks like he'd found it. Now he just had to talk Kirsten round…

"SANDY! A little help?"

Sandy snapped out of his daydream, quickly, he crawled under the bed with Ryan, causing Trey to start back out from beneath it and leaving Kirsten free to distract Seth from his questioning with the offer of milk and cookies.

Trey unwillingly followed when Kirsten grabbed his hand, in a rather snappy manner, to take him downstairs too.

This left Sandy and Ryan alone under the bed.

Ryan allowed his deep blue eye's to catch Sandy's brown ones for a moment before they flashed back down to his hands. He noticed that Sandy's eyes were very nice eyes, and weren't bloodshot from drugs and booze. That was something Ryan didn't see very often in grown-ups eyes.

"Hey kid, don't be scared, OK? There is nothing, nothing to be scared of here, all right? Kirsten and me will never, ever hurt you. Now why don't we crawl out from under here and go get us some milk and cookies before my greedy son and your greedy brother eat them all, eh?"

Ryan looked up into Sandy's eyes again. Sandy was right, he wouldn't hurt Ryan, Ryan could see it in his eyes. But he wasn't so sure about Kirsten; she had seemed stern and angry when Ryan had met her. But, Ryan decided that he was pretty hungry, and so long as he kept near Sandy he would be all right, besides, he didn't want to leave Trey alone with Kirsten for too long.

Slowly but surely, Ryan crawled out from beneath the bed, and Sandy crawled out with him. As soon as they were both standing straight, Ryan clutched Sandy's trouser leg like a security blanket. The two of them walked downstairs together, Ryan's blonde head peeping out from behind Sandy.

They entered the kitchen, where Seth was talking far too fast to make out exactly what he was saying and Trey was perched nervously on the edge of a chair, sipping at a glass of milk as though it may be poisoned. Kirsten was sitting at the head of the table, still looking a little peeved, but less so than before. If Sandy hadn't known her better, he would have sworn she was warming to Trey, Seth at least certainly seemed to adore having another kid around to talk to.

Sandy poured Ryan out a glass of milk and sat down next to his wife. Ryan followed him, still clutching his trouser leg and watching as Sandy placed the milk on the table.

"Hey kiddo, take a seat."

Ryan just looked at Sandy helplessly. The only other spare seat was on the other side of Kirsten, an awfully long way from Trey or Sandy, and an awfully close way from Kirsten. So Ryan didn't sit down, he just tiptoed and reached up at the glass on the table.

"Whoa kid…"

Sandy started too late, as the glass came crashing down on the floor in front of Ryan, spilling milk and fragments of glass anywhere.

Ryan froze and quickly lifted his arms to shield him from his inevitable punishment. But none came. Instead, Kirsten jumped to her feet to grab a mop and bucket, whilst shushing Trey, who had also been startled by the noise. In the Atwood house, smashing glass could mean only one thing.

Sandy too reacted quickly, scooping up a petrified Ryan from the middle of the smashed up glass before the poor little fellow cut his feet. Ryan tensed at this but decided not to struggle. In the long run, that usually just made it worse, he had learnt from experience.

"Hey buddy, you have to be careful with glass stuff OK? Tell you what, tomorrow we'll go shopping and get you a nice plastic kitchen set, Hey?"

Ryan just looked at Sandy, terrified and helpless. Why was this man patronising him not hitting him? Something wasn't right, why was he holding on to him with a soft touch, not painful grip?

Ryan didn't know, but he didn't like it, it made him nervous. Something wasn't right. He was scared a lot. He looked down all that way to Trey, who also looked petrified, sitting nervously on his chair. It was a long way down, and Ryan had always hated heights.

Then Kirsten bustled back in with a mop and bucket.

"Hey sweetie, I'll do that," Sandy offered. Kirsten looked up, and before she could reply, a scared stiff little boy was passed into her arms.

Ryan looked up at her with big deep blue eyes. They were nice eyes, Kirsten thought, sweet, but they were worryingly wise for such a young boy. Ryan gulped. He was scared of Kirsten. Then again, he was scared of heights, and it was a long way to fall. Ryan decided that there was nothing scarier than heights, so instead of struggling clung onto Kirsten for dear life in case he fell.

Kirsten returned his tight little white-knuckle grip with a soft hug and a chin on his head. Maybe this kid wasn't too bad after all. This wasn't his fault, she thought, as she rubbed his tense little back and felt his heart beating ten-to-the-dozen underneath his rib cage. Somebody had obviously done some terrible things to this little boy and his brother, and Kirsten certainly wasn't going to let them get away with it. Trey and Ryan, she decided, were not going back to Fresno…

Please reply! Merry Christmas!


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